With respect to the written essay and do-file for the exam:
·Chooseoneor more databases as sources for your data (World Development Indicators, etc.)
·Choose a topic for the analysis (for example, the determinants of child mortality in developing countries, an analysis of the Preston curve in OECD countries, etc.)
·Clearly, the topic has to fall within the field of health economics (i.e., it should be an analysis of health care utilisation and/or health outcome variables)
·You are free to choose: the topic; the countries to be included in the analysis; the time period; and the variables to be considered
·You can use published scientific papers as an inspiration for your analysis or even replicate the analyses found in these papers (in case you decide to do so, please send to me the original paper(s) as well)
·Describe the variables you have selected and the reason for selecting them
·You will have to organise the data, merge the various databases (in case you use more thanonedata source), and then start with the analysis
·Includeoneor more tables and comment
·Includeoneor more graphs and comment
·Includeoneor more regressions and comment (in particular, comment about the statistically significant coefficients, their magnitude and sign, and the interpretation of the relation with the dependent variable)
·You can use the regression techniques that you prefer or that you think are appropriate for your analysis (standard OLS regression, panel regression (with or without fixed/random effects), probit/logit regression, etc.); provide an explanation for why you selectedonemethod instead of another
·Exactlyoneweekbefore the exam date (i.e., if the exam is on the 25thof January, you will have to send the files on the 18thof January) you will have to send the following files:
oA do-file with all the steps undertaken in the analysis (the do-file is supposed to be working without interruptions)
oThe data file you used as a basis for your analysis
oA Word document describing the steps undertaken in the analysis and containing the interpretation of the various outputs (tables, graphs, regression tables, etc.); this document must not exceed 5 pages
·It is fine to add comments in the do-file, like “here import the data, here I reshape the data…”, but the main interpretation of the results should be included in the Word document
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